November actually turned out to be pretty useless to me in the writing department, as I was too busy to partake in NaNoWriMo properly. Then in December we received some sad news at work: on January 11th our bookshop is closing down.
Which means… I am going to take a year long writing sabbatical in 2014 to try and complete my latest project and get it published. I am equal parts scared and excited!
So this month I reread two books which I absolutely adore – both on novel writing (and revisions) – and I thought I would share them with you today.
– Written by an editor and a ghost writer, this is very clearly written and will make you think about things which other books fail to mention. Also, surprisingly, it doesn’t claim that there are any hard and fast rules for writing (it’s even lenient on adverbs!).
– Written by 2 editors this is a straight forward revision tool which is much simpler than other more philosophical books on writing. It also discusses how a modern publisher might ‘edit’ a classic which I found rather fun!
I also read Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft last month which has a very good chapter on p.o.v. but is a bit flowery!
Book Blather 
So sorry to hear your bookshop is closing — always a sad day for employees and customers alike. I hope your writing sabbatical will be a productive one, though! These sound like useful reads.
Thanks Meg! And they are very useful. 🙂
I’m sorry to hear about the bookstore — but, wow, a year to write!! That sounds amazing. I can’t wait to hear how it goes!
Thanks honey, I’m turning next year into something special! 🙂
Love the self-editing book. Got that one awhile ago. sorry about your bookshop, but I think taking a year off to write is so awesome. good luck.
It’s genius, isn’t it? 🙂 I’m quite scared about next year but also excited… we shall see what happens! It’s sad that the shop is closing though – I shall miss all of our wonderful customers.
I’ll have to check this out!! After NaNo I’ve been wanting to read about writing and editing, but I couldn’t figure out what book to start with! 🙂
Try the Self-Editing book first. 🙂
So sorry to hear about the bookstore closing!!! Change is always hard, but hopefully you will now have the time needed to finish your writing project. Best of luck and keep us updated 🙂
I will! Thanks. 🙂